The interaction of children's misbehaviors and parents' disciplinary methods, and their effects on children's compliance and internalization of rules were studied. Twenty-four mothers of one-to-two year old children were trained to report incidents of children's negative emotional interactions, from which sequences of children's misbehaviors, maternal discipline, and children's subsequent compliance or noncompliance were coded. Specific forms of misbehavior from these young children influenced the forms of discipline received; children's harms against persons were associated with psychological discipline methods such as reasoning and guilt induction. Destruction of property and lapses in self control were linked with techniques of physical punishment and love withdrawal. Love withdrawal was the most effective parental technique in securing compliance from the child at least in the immediate situation.